Is Your Office Making You Sick?

Sick building syndrome (SBS) and the growing prevalence of WiFi and mobile phones are creating long-term health risks that are much more difficult to define—let alone diagnose. With symptoms ranging from dry cough and eye, nose, skin or throat irritation to dizziness, fatigue, headaches, and nausea caused by biological contaminants (like bacteria and molds), toxins from asbestos, carbon monoxide, cleaning agents, and radiation in the workplace, researchers conclude “more focus is needed on the indoor environment” to prevent SBS.
A study at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, for example, shows that cutting ventilation rates even a little can raise the incidence of sick building syndrome among workers by 23%. And exposure to electromagnetic pollution, increasingly prevalent today, only compounds these risks.
New research in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health reports increased cancer and neurological risks from cell towers, which seem to be popping up everywhere—often disguised in church steeples and bell towers. Reviewing 10 epidemiological studies, a Swedish investigation notes that 8 show increased risks within 500 meters (about 1/3 of mile) of mobile phone base stations.